1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to computerized simulation systems. More specifically, the invention relates to a method, system and apparatus for the interactive real-time simulation of a pneumatic system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Medical instruments range from the venerable scalpel to ultra-complex imaging systems. Each medical instrument includes an inherent utility in the field of health care diagnostics and medical treatment. A century ago, diagnostic tools barely existed, while treatment tools were restricted to purely mechanical devices. The study of control systems gave rise in the mid twentieth century to more complex diagnostic and treatment tools in which the electronic and manual operation of valves and switches permitted the selective application of forces about the patient. Examples range from the application of an electric current upon the patient to the anesthetization of a patient through the mechanical mixture of select gases in a mechanical anesthesia machine.
The advent of high performance computing in the latter portion of the twentieth century produced a vast range of new and exciting control systems, particularly for use within health care diagnostic and treatment instrumentation. Examples include electronic control systems for medication delivery, anesthesia ventilation, defibrillation and medical imaging. In the prototypical electronic control system for use with a health care instrument, an embedded computer program can manage the operation of the treatment or diagnostic tool while permitting computer human interaction through a visual interface, for instance a graphical user interface (GUI). Within the GUI, a multiplicity of virtual controls, including graphical knobs, sliders, switches and buttons, can be displayed for use by the end user in operating the instrument. As it will be recognized by the skilled artisan, however, both the operation of the instrument, and particular the use of the GUI can be extraordinarily complex. Yet, the extraordinary complexity of modern electronic control systems can produce an unacceptable risk of human error in the operation of the instrument.
Accordingly, with the increasing complexity of medical devices and their associated electronic control systems, there is an attendant need to provide increasingly sophisticated training techniques through which medical personnel can learn to use such complex health care instrumentation without jeopardizing the health of a patient. While classroom instruction and instruction manuals relating to the operation of complex medical instruments can offer important training, classroom instruction and written materials alone have proven to be no substitute for direct interaction with the instrument. Moreover, it is well known that clinicians often lack either or both the free time and the motivation to read an instrument manual or to attend a class directed to the use of a medical instrument. Consequently, simulation technologies have become an alternative in the training of clinicians in the use of complex medical technologies.
Simulation technologies allow the clinician to rapidly become subsumed in the initial process of becoming familiarized with a new medical instrument. The initial process can be quite stressful and often can involve trial and error manipulation of instrument controls while observing the resulting effect of the manipulation. While such trial and error experimentation is not possible with an actual device and actual patient, the simulation allows the user to experiment with many different scenarios without placing a patient at risk. Thus, the clinician can obtain a substantially better understanding of the operation of the instrument, which ultimately can benefit patient care and safety.
The anesthesia machine as a pneumatic system is perhaps one of the most complex medical instruments and requires significant training in its operation. Notably, there is little room for error in the actual usage of an anesthesia machine. Yet, the mechanical aspects of the anesthesia machine, a “familiar” piece of equipment used daily by anesthesiologists, remains somewhat of a mystery for some clinicians. Specifically, how the modification of individual control settings of an anesthesia machine can affect internal gas flow within different plumbing sections of the anesthesia machine can be sometimes difficult to grasp.
The difficulty in understanding the operation of an anesthesia machine, as would be the case with any pneumatic system, can be understood when considering the opaque nature of the internal plumbing lines of the anesthesia machine and the transparent nature of the various gases flowing through the plumbing lines. Hence, the flow of gases within the anesthesia machine cannot be traced through the anesthesia machine during the course of operation. Furthermore, in situations where more than one gas is present within the plumbing lines of the anesthesia machine, it can be conceptually difficult to track the flow of the different species of gas within the pneumatic circuit. The challenge, therefore, is to construct a mental model of the anesthesia machine that is accurate, enhances understanding and is readily accessible.
The computerized simulation of varying types of medical instrument systems have been developed. Generally, computerized simulations involve complex computer software executing within a workstation. Complicated, albeit accurate mathematical models drive the visual simulation of the operation of the system responsive to various control settings imposed by the operator. Typically, the graphical state of the GUI in the pneumatic system can be directly coupled to the output of the mathematical model governing the flow of gas throughout the plumbing lines of the system. Accordingly, the computing resource requirements to operate such as system can be substantial and the performance thereof can be more tightly linked to the processing capabilities of the workstation.
Most importantly, the instrument display itself can be limited by the size of the workstation display. More particularly, the typical workstation display can be limited in size, resolution and dimensionality. Accordingly, excepting for the most basic of instruments, when trying to present each element and feature of a pneumatic circuit in one display screen, so that an end user can view a global picture of the instrument plumbing, the pneumatic equipment layout generally will occupy the entire computer display. Yet, to properly simulate the operation of a pneumatic system, a bevy of instrument controls also must be presented through the GUI so that the end user can operate the controls of the instrument while observing the operation of the instrument in the pneumatic circuit. In particular, it can be important for the practitioner to observe the impact of a control adjustment within the pneumatic circuit.
It will be recognized by the skilled artisan, then, that if the presentation of the pneumatic circuit in the display consumes the entirety of the display, there will be little if any room to concurrently present the instrument controls in the display. Moreover, because most computer displays predominantly present images in two dimensions, the instrument controls often are presented as mere icons which can be difficult to recognize for the ordinary clinician. Finally, most conventional instrument simulations involve considerably substantial processing of gas flows resulting from the multiple permutations of control settings applied by the end user. In particular, the display animations resulting from changes in the underlying mathematical model can require significant program logic. As a result, the program size of the simulation can be prohibitively large which can inhibit the real-time distribution of the simulation over a computer communications network.